Lakers: O'Neal Will Come Back Strong

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) _ The Lakers have kept a close watch on Shaquille O'Neal while he recovers from toe surgery, and they have seen that the big center is anxious to get going.

While O'Neal hasn't been released to practice, teammate Kobe Bryant has done his share to make sure O'Neal stays hyped about the upcoming season.

Bryant said he recently saw a TV show that listed the NBA's four all-time top centers as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Hakeem Olujawon.

Bryant couldn't wait to tell O'Neal what he heard.

"So I went to the big fellow and said, `Did you hear about this?' " Bryant said. "He was like, `All right. All right.' But it seems like he has all the motivation in the world to come back and just destroy. It's going to be interesting."

O'Neal has said that he'll return with a vengeance. His teammates believe him.

"We talked about it before," Bryant said. "All this talk of everybody picking the Kings and the Kings talking all this type of trash and Yao Ming coming into the league, it kind of lit a fire under him."

When the Lakers won their first championship under coach Phil Jackson in 2000, O'Neal joked all season long and came up with nicknames for himself. He was MVP that year.

But O'Neal has been hurting the past two seasons, mostly because of pain in his right toe, and wasn't as outgoing as in the past. It seems the surgery on the toe Sept. 11 has made O'Neal a happy-go-lucky guy again.

"I just think he's confident that when he returns, he's going to be coming back at level in which he played in the past," Jackson said. "Last year was an immediate jolt to see which limitations he had. It was a tough situation for him all year."

It has been a tough camp for several of the Lakers.

Rick Fox practiced some Wednesday, but he still has a stiff back. He didn't play in Tuesday night's exhibition game against the Clippers because of back spasm. Tracy Murray didn't practice Wednesday because of a sore right hip, the same hip he had surgery on a few months ago.

"This is the hard time for the older players," Jackson said. "This is the first part of the (exhibition) season. The beginning of the year is real hard for them physically to get their game legs and to see the importance and the enthusiasm for basketball.

"So right now, it's time for young players with live legs and high ambitions to play."